For Much Of The Night, It Was An Inside Job

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – UConn knew the interior would be a spot on the floor where it could find an advantage. That much was not surprising.

But just how big an advantage it would turn out to be, and the utter dominance they were able to display in the lane, was far less expected.

The Irish were simply unable to slow the Huskies once they got into the paint. UConn's size, along with the versatility and agility of its bigs, was lethal on the inside.

Twelve of the Huskies 21 field goals in the first half came on tip-ins or layups. Breanna Stewart had eight points at the rim before the game was six minutes old.

A string of five straight layups over 1:27 in the first half gave UConn a 16-8 lead that it would never relinquish.

"We knew that we could really dominate them in the paint," Stewart said. "Just trying to get at them early and just being aggressive, getting to the basket, that was one of our game plans."

When Notre Dame was able to prevent the ball from getting into the post – or on the rare occasions that UConn settled for jump shots – it was able to string together a few stops and put together a few short runs. But the Irish were never able to sustain a spurt before the Huskies got things going again, almost always by going back inside.

Cuts to the paint produced throughout the night. Catches in the post often yielded baby hooks and easy looks. A handful of times, the up-and-under move was open.

As a result, Stewart finished with 21 points, Stefanie Dolson with 17. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis took advantage, too, with 18.

No doubt, the Irish missed the presence of Natalie Achonwa, a senior forward who led the team in rebounding and was a force in the paint before tearing her ACL in the Elite Eight.

"We knew we had a size advantage with them," Dolson said. "Losing Achonwa is terrible but we knew we could get the ball in the paint and that's what we did and we finished inside."

In total, UConn scored 52 points in the paint – good for about 66 percent of its total output. The shots on the inside went down with staggering efficiency, which made it difficult for Notre Dame to keep up on the other end.

While the Huskies were able to hit at a 46.6-percent clip from the floor because they were in position for such high-percentage shots, the Irish were far more reliant on jumpers.

The interior advantage was equally evident on the backboards. UConn won the rebounding battle, 54-31, and was extraordinarily strong on the offensive glass. Twenty-two offensive rebounds turned into 18 second-chance points.

Dolson was a workhorse on the glass, battling for position and tipping out those balls she couldn't quite reach. She finished the night with 16 rebounds, one off her career high.